Distinguished Facility-of-the-Year Awards: Hard Acts to Follow

Seven outdoor tennis facilities were honored in 2015 with Tennis Industry/American Sports Builders Association Facility-of-the-Year Awards. One facility, the Bell Recreation Center of Sun City, Ariz., won “Outstanding” honors and was featured in our February 2016 issue, and three others were clay-court facilities that we highlighted in the April issue as “Distinguished” facilities of the year. The remaining three Distinguished facilities are primarily hard-court centers and include a high school in Nevada, a university in Ohio, and a health & fitness center with hard and clay courts in Colorado.

In addition to the Outstanding and Distinguished awards, for 2015 the ASBA created Silver and Bronze honors, and the new tennis complex at Bishop Manogue Catholic High School in Reno, Nev., is the inaugural Bronze Award winner. The project was a design-build of nine post-tensioned concrete courts, complete with vinyl-coated fencing and spectator seating. The courts are tucked into a hillside, so landscaping rock and plantings were used to hold back the soil and drain water away from the courts. The contractor was given two and a half months to complete the entire project because a major donor was only going to contribute if the deadline was met, which it was — on budget and on time.

The new tennis center at Life Time Fitness Center in Centennial, Colo., includes four clay courts and six hard courts, which have blended lines on them for short-court tennis, too. The general contractor lacked experience with designing and building courts, so the specialty contractor was enlisted to fine-tune the drawings and specifications. Then an engineering subcontractor was called in to redesign the post-tensioning system to better fit the project, which uses an encapsulated post-tensioning system so the steel anchor plates and any exposed cable ends will be protected from rust. Exterior drainage was achieved by sloping the ground away from the courts, then planting with sod and native Colorado plants to prevent soil erosion.

The project at Xavier University Brockhoff Family Tennis Facility in Cincinnati was a renovation of the six existing varsity tennis courts, which was necessary in part because the site is in a valley and water was being trapped under the courts, and pushing up to the surface. The solution was to install a perforated “under-drain” into the subsurface drainage system, tied into the existing storm sewer system on the exterior of the facility. To help promote lateral subsurface drainage from the high side of the courts and into the new under-drain system, a 3-inch drainage mat was installed between the existing asphalt surface and the new 3.5 inches of asphalt. Existing asphalt walkways also were raised with 3.5 inches of new asphalt to match the grade of the new courts. The vinyl-coated chain-link fencing was modified to taper from 10 feet high down to 4 feet high along the sidelines

Bishop Manogue Catholic High School

Reno, Nev.

(Nominated by Tennis & Track Co.)

Architect/Engineer: Pezonella & Associates

General Contractor: Tennis & Track Co.

No. of Courts: 9

Surface: California Sports Surfaces

Concrete: 3D Concrete

Nets, Posts, Straps: Douglas Industries

Bleachers: Southern Bleachers

ASBA Certified Builder: Brian Renner

Life Time Fitness Center

Centennial, Colo.

(Nominated by L.E.R. Inc., dba Renner Sports Surfaces)

Architect/Engineer: KWS Engineering & Development Consultants

Specialty Contractor: Renner Sports Surfaces

No. of Courts: 10 (6 hard, 4 clay)

Surface (hard courts): Renner Sports Surfaces

Surface (soft courts): Har-Tru Sports

Nets, Posts, Straps, Windscreens: Douglas Industries

Lights: LSI Industries

ASBA Certified Builder: Colin Donovan

Xavier University Brockhoff Family Tennis Facility

Cincinnati, Ohio

(Nominated by Sportworks Field Design)

Architect/Engineer: Sportworks Field Design

No. of Courts: 6

Surface: Neytra Industries Inc.

Drainage: ADS

For details on the 2016 Outstanding Facility-of-the-Year Awards, contact the ASBA at 866-501-ASBA or info@sportsbuilders.org, or visit sportsbuilders.org.